Patchwork Metropolis. Progetto di città contemporanea

Nel 1989 il giovane architetto olandese Willem Jan Neutelings sviluppò un progetto per il territorio tra Rotterdam e L'Aia proponendo la sua personale lettura della forma urbana chiamata "Patchwork Metropolis". Nella duplice veste di manifesto provocatorio e analisi rigorosa di un preciso contesto storico e territoriale, il discorso del patchwork attraversa molti preminenti temi della contemporaneità – la figura del frammento, la condizione periferica, l’assetto territoriale della metropoli – indagando struttura e funzionamento del modello urbano neo-liberale. A trent’anni dalla stesura, il lavoro di Neutelings non ha esaurito la sua attualità, proponendosi come un valido strumento per interpretare il territorio in cui viviamo e prefigurare nuovi scenari di sviluppo. The Netherlands is commonly considered as one of the most planned and one of the most advanced welfare states in Europe, characterised by a pattern of dense urban centres placed in a pristine, rural setting. In 1989 the young Dutch architect Willem Jan Neutelings developed a project for the territory in between Rotterdam and the Hague, drastically questioning this belief. In this context Neutelings proposed his personal reading of the urban form called "De Tapijtmetropool" or “Patchwork Metropolis” . Whether it is interpreted as a general manifesto or as the explanation of a specific territorial configuration, the patchwork discourse crosses many of the preeminent topics of the modernity – the figure of the fragment, the issue of the peripheral condition and the territorial layout of the metropolis– and explores the core elements and the functioning of the neoliberal urban model . After nearly thirty years from its first draft, we are far enough away from Neutelings' work to be able to inquire with a detached look which was the discussion about cities back in the 1980s and, especially, to look at the present consequences of that discussion. As a project of anachronism, this book faces the issues of today city and territory, in terms of both spatial and governance configuration, by telling a story that began in 1989, thus highlighting the new relevance that the Patchwork manifesto can assume in the contemporary European neoliberal environment.